Summary: Russian forces have escalated attacks near Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, demanding the surrender of a key Ukrainian defensive line as a condition for a ceasefire. Despite this pressure, Ukraine reports regaining some territory for the first time since 2023 and inflicting significant Russian casualties, while also conducting successful long-range drone strikes against Russian energy and naval assets.
Main Topics Covered:
1. Escalation of Russian offensive operations around Kramatorsk.
2. Ukrainian claims of territorial gains and high Russian losses.
3. Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian infrastructure and Black Sea Fleet.
4. Stated Russian war aims and ceasefire conditions.
Russian attacks on Kramatorsk escalate Ukraine war as Kyiv regains ground
Ukraine has won back some of its territory this year for the first time since 2023 amid claims of soaring Russian losses.
Russia has called for a “cessation of hostilities” in US President Donald Trump’s “aggression against Iran”, after the United States and Israel launched unprovoked, coordinated attacks against the Islamic republic on February 28.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov offered mediation in the conflict, while Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed “deep concern”.
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But as a new war rages, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has barrelled into a fifth year with little sign of peace on the horizon.
On February 27, Russian forces escalated their offensive by shelling outlying communities of Kramatorsk, a city in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russia has claimed.
It was “the first time that Russian forces have hit Kramatorsk or its suburbs with tube artillery,” said the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank.
Kramatorsk is one of four cities, along with Sloviansk, Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka, forming a “fortress belt” running from north to south, in whose defence Ukraine has heavily invested.
Putin has demanded the surrender of the fortress belt as a condition for a ceasefire.
Zelenskyy told reporters on Monday that he had seen leaked documents of Russian war plans, and they included seizing the unoccupied parts of Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk in an offensive beginning this month.
Also in Putin’s war aims is the seizure of the southern port city of Odesa and swathes of Zaporizhia and Dnipro, which would place Russian troops deeper into central Ukraine.
‘We are holding our ground’
But the fight is not going well for Russia, according to Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii.
“In February 2026, for the first time since the Kursk offensive operation, the Ukrainian Defence Forces regained control over a larger territory than the enemy was able to seize,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging service. “We are holding our ground,” he said.
The Kursk offensive, masterminded by Syrskii, counter-invaded Russian territory in August 2024 and took Russia by surprise.
The ISW agreed with him, estimating Ukraine had made net gains of 257sq km (100 square miles) this year. The last time Ukrainian forces made net gains on their own territory was during a 2023 counteroffensive, said the ISW, estimating those gains at 536sq km (205 square miles).
“They cannot launch the March offensive,” Zelenskyy told reporters. “They want to attack, but they don’t have the strength to do it yet.”
Syrskii said, “The total losses of the Russian invaders over the three winter months amount to about 92,850 soldiers killed and wounded, or 1,031 people per day.”
Ukraine’s long arm
Ukraine also scored a range of fire victories in the past week.
An estimated 200 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles struck the Russian Black Sea Port of Novorossiysk on Monday. Video showed them blowing up an oil terminal and damaging six of seven tankers moored there. They also damaged jamming and radar systems on the frigate Admiral Essen, and damaged the minesweeper Valentin Pikul and the anti-submarine warfare corvettes Yeysk and Kasimov.
On the same night, Ukraine struck the Albashneft oil refinery in Krasnodar Krai. The attack destroyed several fuel tanks and pipelines.
Two days later, Russia accused Ukraine of sinking its liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Arctic Metagaz off the coast of Libya by launching unmanned surface drones from the Libyan coast. The ship caught fire and sank along with 61,000 tonnes of LNG, 240km (150 miles) off Sirte.
Russia calls for peace in Iran, Ukraine encourages US-Israeli operation
Russian condemnation of the war in Iran and offer to mediate mirror Trump’s call for Russia’s conflict of aggression against Ukraine to end and his attempts to launch negotiations.
Ukraine’s allies have repeatedly described Russia as a rogue state for ignoring UN rules to negotiate differences peacefully, but Lavrov turned the tables on the US.
“The United States has stated openly, and President Donald Trump has said it without hesitation, that it will not be guided by any UN principles. It will be guided only by the interests of its own state,” Lavrov said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Putin told Gulf leaders in a phone call on the same day that Russia “respects the sovereignty of other countries and does not interfere in other people’s affairs”, as his troops fought for territory in Ukraine.
While most US allies have distanced themselves from Trump’s Iran war, Ukraine encouraged it.
“It is fair to give the Iranian people a chance to rid themselves of a terrorist regime … and to guarantee security for all nations that have suffered from terror originating in Iran,” Zelenskyy said on Saturday.
He was referring to the “more than 57,000” Shahed-type drones designed by Iran and sold to Russia, or produced in Russia under licence, that have been launched against Ukraine.
Iran has provided lethal assistance to Russia during the Ukraine war, and the two signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in January 2025.
As Iran launched drones and missiles towards its Gulf neighbours, Ukraine offered to help them defend themselves.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer took up the offer to help its partners in the Middle East.
“We will … bring experts from Ukraine to partner with our own experts to help Gulf partners shoot down Iranian drones attacking them,” Starmer said.
“Ready to help and share our experience!” wrote Oleksandr Kamyshin, Zelenskyy’s key adviser on international defence production agreements.
“Ukraine has 10+ companies producing interceptor systems. We intercept around 90 percent of Russian Shaheds, largely with interceptor drones,” he wrote.
Syrskii said 70 percent of Shaheds were stopped by interceptor drones.
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